As I was walking through the train station on my way home from work, I walked into the middle of a flash rave. If you're unfamiliar witht he concept, click here
I got into it, as much as I did, because I was listening to this:
I missed the start of the flash rave, and I guess that if you miss the flash you're never really in the picture, but it was a distancing experience. Everyone has headphones on, and is moving in different time to different music. When the real howling and hooting and hollering takes over, you have headphones blasting, so you miss the full effect of a group getting audibly wild.
I could hear the sound of the station in the background. Commuters are really loud. I was wearing headphones, not miracles.
In this blippage of new raves and flash raves, I think an important thing to remember about raving is that sharing music, having fun and getting down are way more important than the question "Who is looking at me."
Making out with headphones on in a train station is like going for a moonlight walk on a beach wearing oven mits.
My homeboy Steve Honey bounces with a love for music, it crackles through the dude and you can faintly hear the love, even when there's total silence. He's been shredding dancefloors and putting them on his sandwich for years under the DJ CODA name, his new project is:
This upcoming Wednesday a coterie of video visuals that my drinking buddy / media bus buddy Sneaky D and I made will be screening on the walls of the Proud Gallery in Camden Town London.
Here's the flyer
As you can see/read there are bands playing. Heat up the webpads of Semaphore and Ribeye Jake. Ribeye is a dude who I've seen wreck the whole shop and then put the tools back in autobiographical order, and Louie from Semaphore brings his Waits, Cash and educational singalongs to every house party.
For those in London, the Proud Gallery is somewhere on the corner of Hipster Boulevard and Famous Mews, the nearest tube stop is Laidefinetely.
http://www.proud.co.uk/
Fuckin art fuck, here's a sample of the kind of stuff that will be on display:
"With my sunglasses on, I'm Jack Nicholson. Without them, I'm fat and 60. Jack Nicholson"
I'll be the guy tinkering with projectors telling girls that the "AV" in AV Club stands for abstinence victim, there's rap too, I might even grab a mic, come on over. It will be insane, at least my stuff will be, I know cause I've seen it.
Speaking of insanity.
I saw !!! on Thursday night and they were unbeleivably hard to describe. One of the best rock shows I've ever seen. With dancing.
Blog house got a wikipedia entry, Kissy Sell Out remixed Mark Rosnon, the whole LCD Soundsystem record. Nu Rave maybe you weren't a movement after all, but more like a "Crystal Pepsi" for a overloaded bunch of geeks, kids and hipsters, needing movements to help them make choices. Glow sticks burn out. Timeless jams and unforgettable live performances are kind of what life is all about.
I love Chan Marhall, and she'll have my attention at the show, but, the cute needle is in the pink, it's raining hearts and bald people are growing full heads of pitless chocolate cherries.
The Biz and La Biz, UK tour 07, same time as Cat Power. Not a coincidence.
Time to break out t shirt that says "Lucky Bastard" on it and spill wine on the dancefloor. Thanks to the recent visit by my mother the girls will be able to see my room. That's not a joke. The place looks great, and it better.
TWENTY TWENTY has blessed the webosphere and earosphere and eyeosphere (not to be confused with Ionosphere, but see the tracklist as you may wind up gassed and electrified) with a new mix called "Forty Minutes of Fun." He's also launched a new website, it's got music notes, purple and everything...golly gang it's really quite sumpin.
Dude's a curmudgeon, but you know, for the right side. We have laughs. He's really good at what he does, I've prolly complimented him enough.
The Specs:
my egyptian lover (loose cannons mix)- space cowboy suenos dulces- thunderheist sweaty wet/ dirty damp- gameboy/ gamegirl lindsay lohan's revenge- pase rock chick fit (kissy sell out mix)- all saints helicopter (weird science mix)- bloc party shake it up (stanton warriors mix)- beatnuts camera (sebastian mix)- editors yummy knockout (paparazzi mix)- gwen stefani foxy lady (speaker punks mix)- jimi hendrix shhhake it up- diplo vs the beatles kinda new (dirty south mix)- spektrum rock steady (mstrkrft mix)- all saints fucking boyfriend (peaches mix)- the bird and the bee phantom (thunderous olympian's lite ghosts mix)- justice all that she wants- ace of base knife (girl talk mix)- grizzly bear / clipse In addition to being a Dj, twentytwenty is a brother. His sister Kim is a gas, a straight shootin goofy good dame-a-lam-a-dingdong. She plays voice and guitar in a Tinsletown two-piece called Eagle and Talon, that receive my pattented "Bandswatch" as a band to watch. EAGLE AND TALON - THEY'RE SO SHARP (snippet)
In a few years when they're both stars you can read my erudite but phlegmatic analysis of the musical personas of these siblings in something like Nylon or the wall of the third stall on the left of Norrie Mcentyre's Fish Farm and Mortuary, Falcon Beach, Manitoba, Canada. After all, who isn't a sucker for a brother sister combo with chops to go.
BBQ'S RIGHT ARM RECORDS: INSTALLMENT 1 Before being a monk, an islamist, supposed Rushdie hater and banned in the USA, Cat Stevens and made this:
On blast like Slayer in Guantanamo. This album should receive a commendation from the Worldwide Psychiatrists Guild for all the bad trips it must've righted before the mind fled.
This video illuminated much about hip hop that I didn't fully understand, and came along at a crucial time in my development, where Punk Rock and Metal could've had me forever.
Here's the opening sequence, which caused Sudermann to walk around all summer belting out "We came her tonight to get started, to cold act ill or get retarded!"
Here's Aaron Snyder's stellar debut:
Peter Smolik's shocking imtroduction to the world (poorly de-interlaced fanatics only:
This video had a great deal of influence on the widespread popularity of tech skateboarding and little kid teams.
Muska's Epic Work:
Speaking of epicism and skateboarding, Epiclylaterd has a new show on VBS
This is what Muska was aiming for, The Gonz, Video Days:
Guy Mariano as a kid:
Celebrity Movie Star Jason Lee!!!
Also directs Beck:
Fronts Stillwater:
Is Earl:
Of course, Brodieman:
All the respect in the world to Spike Jonze who directed "Video Days."
A few of the best TV Commercials ever:
Two of the best movies ever:
SO MANY MUSIC VIDEOS
Weezer + Green + Animals = Cuteapalooza
Bjork + Images That Distract From Her Voice/ Bjork Hams It Up X Bjork Uses Her Voice For The Forces Of Good = Busby Berkley Wet Dreams
Chem Bros + Sofia's Hammers = Godfather 3? No I beleive there were just two.
"How bout the power of flight, that do anything for ya holmes?"
Black + Gas / Spike = Epicly Timeless
GEEKED UP
Youtube is the weapon of choice:
Spike got over skateboards:
This Blog Post + Skate and Spike Youtubes = SABOTAGE!
It's very easy to get lost in the self determined webworld, and forget that the majority of people actively concerned with "culture" consume the easiest available and palateable forms. Without them, we wouldn't have The Aviator, Sinatra or The Beastie Boys. But while we're enjoying art in all of it's pop, boom and glory, most people just want something that is cruel involving celebrities. Anna Nicole didn't leave any signifigant "work" behind, as her art was the art of American tabloid celebrity, and as annoying and infinite as it is, the concession is that it's disposable.
Anna Nicole Smith was gorgeous woman. I would be lying if I said that's the only way I will remember her.
"This atrocious death will be a terrible lesson for those whose principal occupation consists in spying on and tormenting the film stars." Jean Cocteau on Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe is incomparable. Her death was important. She still defines sex, and legions of hack actresses have had fruitful careers because they have a flake of her photogeneity. Anna Nicole Smith can't be compared to Marilyn in any way except her hair colour, tragic death and the fact that Marilyn Monroe was a massive part of what we knew Anna Nicole Smith to be. In terms of the late Ms. Smith, Marilyn influenced how we shot her, coloured her, treated her, cut her, and how she will be remembered.
It's no different today than it was fifty years ago, the fans of a star want them to lose love, fail at work, and do a press conference on too many pills. Maybe that's why some celebrities decide to take too many.
It's just a shame when stars of whatever magnitude melt under their own shine and the public's burning adoration, interest and jealousy.
Enough death, tomorrow I'll put up a mix by Twentytwenty called "40 Minutes of Fun."
I can give you what you want. I can make your heart beat short. I can make you ice cream We could be a sweet team Melting in your vice dreams, sport. -The New Young Pony Club "Ice Cream"
Like Michael Jackson, Barry Bonds and bong hits, Vice Magazine take a lot of sour raspberries and sanctimonious flak from people pretending that they didn't once love them.
Lately, Vice has been like a childhood best friend with a rabid wolverine in their brain and insurmountable physical dependencies. The experiences range from awesome to horrific, but you're always glad to have them hanging out in your bathroom or on your coffee table for a few weeks.
Two days ago, Vice went over the internet's head, raised the bar, turned it into a real bar, opened the bar, and declared "hooch on the house, we NEVER close." They don't mix drinks, but points of view channelled through their skilled coterie of pros, hos, closers, clothes horses, and trouble for their nosers. In a more committed rhyme, it's those that chose the road less glorious, but more notorious. All I'm saying is: Lance Bangs, Metal In Iraq, Eugene Merman, David Cross...and it just started.
The Youtube trazillionaires didn't get their youtubes tied, but that little rag from Montreal just cooked up a baby in their lab, and it's coming out smoking. Click the link below to taste the waste.
My Cousin just registered me with a facebook account, undershooting my age by a few years (Class of 02' Stand Up) Here's dancy nostalgia by Certified Bananas to the lovely ladies and little punks that comprise the youth resurgence in my family, oh yeah and any of the other googleplexes of people that saw The Little Mermaid.
On the Deez-Ney/Mouse/Canadian Left Wing tip: Torture expert and neck snapist Jack Bauer introducing a famous Canadian Socialist cartoon. Did he order the code red? You're goddamn right he did!
While you're ruminating on Mouseland (and the fact that Jack Bauer/Lt. Kendrick is Canadian), here's a kick axe techno hipsterockedisco tune that references TV's 24.
If the tunes are too girly for some of you, my apologies, they're primarily for kids this cute:
Back to Bananas, Peanut Butter and Banana absolutely schools Peanut Butter and Jam. I used to have a video editing station next to a British girl who said that Bananas "Smelled like medicine." PB&B in the AM, smells like victory to me. PETER, BJORN & JOHN - LET'S CALL IT OFF
Now it's time to bring out the headliners, they've been on top of the pops, they've been on "This Evening with Nigel Craze", they were voted "Indiest indies" on MNE.co.uk, now...here they are...the hottest band in all the land:
I don't know why, but I like the Klaxons way more without the vocals. Did I break some rule with that? Current coolness arbiters, don't take away my "c pass", I still want to go to shows and wear shoes with holes in them without cute girls telling me I'm "dressed like a tramp".
This instrumental is already hiring a crack team of defense lawyers for the case of "Currently Fourteen Year Old's Spines and Brains vs The New Rave Movement."
Damn babylon barristration can't even spell "Nu" correctly.
So we all spent Christmas/Hannukah a little bit concerned about Aaron Vincent-Elkaim, out in Israel, risking his scrawny un-missed little neck to get images like these:
Here's something topical and timeless by a few of Winnipeg's best:
Also, he's got the raddest avatar (geeked up! geeked up!) on the web right now:
I know that I've hyped his parties before, but Co-op and his purrrtner Dj Hunnicut throw the best parties in Winnipeg. That might seem like having the hottest throw up in De Moines, but it's more like being the first dude to bottle drinking water on the moon...and teach it to dance. They'll be shredding Canada next month, get warm. Hunnicut has also been known to accompany these next guys, because comedy is a party.
Crumbs homies, under the pressures of an adoring and devoted global fanbase, finally re-designed this: CRUMBS.CA
All for now, gotta go get some work as a "North American Voice", and email friends in safety or danger. You all should do the same.
The Dj Drama/Cannon fiasco continues, please see Houston So Real.
Of the new points, the most salient for my pound is "Not about mixtapes." I'd love to bring the debater out and editorialize, but I'm not in America, I'll let them handle it, they're doing the best they can to keep the pulse on a ridiculous sham.
If there's on relative truism in today's world of music, it's that respect matters more than the industry. Talent wins. That's the game right now, for better or worse. Goons from the other team will always target star players first.
Rushed into production despite the epic post I've been cooking up, is this story:
The RIAA has raided the Atlanta studio of Dj Drama and Dj Cannon. I find it laughable yet saddening that the RIAA, a body that claim they are protecting artists would raid the studio of important hip hop artists. It is a vilainous and ridiculous move by the RIAA that will only embitter those that are using the internet to free music from the industry and place it in the control of artists and fans.
In the following Fox News Atlanta report, we learn that they also confiscated cars and computers, and were hoping to find guns and drugs. We live in wild times, when the Recording Industry cracks down on the massive source of free advertising that are mixtapes, calling it rackateering.
"The robbed that smiles, steals something from the thief" -Othello, 1. 3
I'll never understand how these people miss the point so severely. It is endlessly frustrating that the industry and the government are working together to slow the ineveitable weakening. Ears and brains won, the internet helped. Raiding artists studios does not help the music business. These cheap, racist punks are fighting a costly and counterproductive battle that they can only prolong, but never win.
The scurrilous Matt Kilgo from the RIAA is rocked to his core by the fact that they use the internet to market mixes. My response were we sat down in Atlanta, me drinking a frosty Rolling Rock, he on his fourth straw slurped can of Diet Surge, I would say:
OF COURSE THEY USE THEIR WEBSITE TO MARKET IT! THAT'S HOW KIDS FIND OUT ABOUT STUFF! THAT'S HOW ARTISTS GET EXPOSED! THE INTERNET!
I'll just let a Weezy and Drama jam soothe the anger, after all, it's a cemented mongolith in the pantheon of recent hip hop.
I will play the swan. And die in music. Othello, 5. 2
Visit myspace.com/djdrama to shout some support in the earnest and powerful messageboardimonial fashion. Plus, the first track on the page is prescient on the content signifigance tip.
They're just upset that they don't have the savvy to play the game. Too bad for them. It's about music for us. But as Lil Wayne says in Cannon, "It's about money it's bigger than me." Hopefully time proves him wrong, and the industry grows up.
Jealous souls will not be answered so; They are not ever jealous for the cause, But jealous for they are jealous. Othello, 3. 4
Dj Drama, Mr Thanksgiving, don't take any guff from these pitiable fucking swine.
CHOW
BBQ
PS: I hope Lars Ulrich gets a rash. I guarantee he owns an ipod, somebody raid him. PSS: Shout out William Shakespeare. He pirated lots of his plots, nobody raided him.
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